2 Kings 6 · WEB
Axe Head Floats; Arameans Blinded; Siege of Samaria
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The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.
2Please let us go to the Jordan, and every man take a beam from there, and let us make a place there for us to dwell." He answered, "Go."
3One said, "Please be pleased to go with your servants." He answered, "I will go."
4So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.
5But as one was cutting down a tree, the axe head fell into the water. He cried out, "Alas, my master! For it was borrowed."
6The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, threw it in there, and the iron floated.
7He said, "Take it." So he put out his hand and took it.
8Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a place."
9The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware that you not pass this place, for Syria is going down there."
10The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him about. He saved himself there more than once or twice.
11The heart of the king of Syria was very troubled about this. He called his servants and said to them, "Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?"
12One of his servants said, "No, my lord the king; but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom."
13He said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send and capture him." It was told him, saying, "Behold, he is in Dothan."
14Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. They came by night and surrounded the city.
15When the servant of the man of God had risen early and had gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was around the city. His servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?"
16He answered, "Don't be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
17Elisha prayed and said, "Yahweh, please open his eyes, that he may see." Yahweh opened the young man's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.
18When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh and said, "Please strike this people with blindness." He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
19Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." He led them to Samaria.
20When they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, "Yahweh, open the eyes of these men, that they may see." Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the middle of Samaria.
21The king of Israel said to Elisha when he saw them, "My father, shall I strike them? Shall I strike them?"
22He answered, "You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master."
23He prepared great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of Syria stopped raiding the land of Israel.
24After this, Ben Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
25There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.
26As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, "Help, my lord the king!"
27He said, "If Yahweh doesn't help you, where could I help you from? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?"
28The king said to her, "What is wrong with you?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'
29So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him;' but she has hidden her son."
30When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes; and he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth inside on his flesh.
31Then he said, "God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat stays on him today."
32But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man ahead; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, "Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door shut against him. Isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?"
33While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. He said, "Behold, this evil is from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?"
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Summary
Elisha performs a small miracle by making a borrowed axe head float in the Jordan River, showing God's care for ordinary needs. He then repeatedly reveals the military plans of the Aramean king to Israel's king, and when Aramean troops surround Dothan, Elisha prays for his servant to see the heavenly army of horses and chariots of fire protecting them. Elisha leads the blinded Arameans to Samaria and has them fed and released rather than killed. The chapter ends with a severe siege of Samaria by Ben-Hadad, leading to a desperate famine and the horrifying account of two women agreeing to eat their sons, prompting the king to blame Elisha.
Themes
- God's protection is greater and more real than any visible military threat
- The spiritual realm is active and present even when unseen
- Mercy toward enemies as an expression of God's character
- Famine and siege as consequences of national unfaithfulness
Key verses
- 2 Kgs 6:16 — “Don't be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
- 2 Kgs 6:17 — “Yahweh opened the young man's eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.”
- 2 Kgs 6:22 — “You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them.”
Context & background
Dothan (modern Tell Dothan, West Bank) was a city in the hill country of Samaria, about 11 miles north of Shechem, and was the place where Joseph's brothers had sold him into slavery centuries earlier (Genesis 37). The Aramean kingdom, centered in Damascus (modern Damascus, Syria), was Israel's persistent northern enemy during this era. Samaria (modern Sebastia, West Bank) was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The siege conditions described — donkey heads and dove dung selling for enormous sums — reflect the extreme desperation of prolonged sieges documented in ancient sources, including the Assyrian and Babylonian records of siege warfare.
Cross-references
- Gen 37:17 — Joseph's brothers are found at Dothan, the same city where Elisha is surrounded
- Luke 4:18 — Jesus reads of sight to the blind — Elisha's opening of eyes foreshadows this
- Ps 34:7 — "The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear him and delivers them"
- Rev 6:5-6 — Famine conditions in the end times echo the siege famine of Samaria
- Rom 12:20 — "Feed your enemy" — the principle Elisha applies to the captured Arameans